Georgia prosecutor seeks to commence Trump trial a week prior to state primary.
Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis proposed starting the trial in her RICO case against former President Donald Trump and 18 of his allies roughly one week before the state’s primary.
In a filing on Wednesday, Willis’ team asked the presiding judge to consider a scheduling order that would have arraignments for the defendants on the week of September 5 and a trial commencing on March 4, 2024.
The suggested trial start date is significant because it falls on the calendar one day before Super Tuesday and eight days before Georgia’s primary set for March 12. Trump is currently the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.
As noted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, it is unlikely Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee will make a decision on the proposed scheduling order until hearing from the defendants.
Special prosecutor Nathan Wade wrote in the filing for Willis’ team that their proposed dates “do not conflict” with already-scheduled hearings and trial dates in other cases, specifically mentioning Trump. The filing additionally proposes other dates regarding discovery and other issues leading up to the trial.
A hush-money case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is scheduled to go to trial on March 25. Special counsel Jack Smith’s documents case against Trump is set to begin on May 20 in Florida. And in a federal case focused on the 2020 election, Smith has asked for a January 2 trial start date in Washington, D.C.
Trump also faces a fraud suit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James that is set to go to trial in October and a defamation lawsuit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, who accuses the former president of raping her, with a trial in that case expected in mid-January.
Across all the legal matters, Trump has broadly denied any wrongdoing. When it comes to the four criminal cases, he has claimed politically motivated forces are targeting him in a “witch hunt” propagated by the Biden administration and Democrat prosecutors in New York and Georgia.
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In the Georgia case, Trump and 18 others were charged this week in an alleged scheme to overturn the results of the last presidential election in the state. At a press conference on Monday, Willis said she would give the defendants subject to arrest warrants “the opportunity” to voluntarily surrender by noon on Friday, August 25.
With a post to Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump said he is planning to produce a report showing fraud in Georgia’s 2020 election at a press conference next week that will hurt Willis’ case against him and his co-defendants.
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